Dates Announced for 2017 Beach Championships, New Beach Event Added to Calendar
Posted: December 12, 2016 04:10 PM
Colorado Springs, Colo. (Dec. 12, 2016) – Today, USA Ultimate, the national governing body for the sport of ultimate in the United States and proud member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, announced the dates and location of the third annual Beach Championships, as well as the addition of a second beach event to the USA Ultimate competition calendar.
The Beach Championships will again be held in Virginia Beach, Va. The event returns to Virginia Beach for the third consecutive year and will be contested May 20-21, 2017. Once again, the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau and Resort Management, Inc. will serve as the local organizing committee for the Beach Championships.
"Virginia Beach is excited to partner with USA Ultimate to bring the Beach Championships back to our coastal community," said Nancy Helman, director of sports marketing at the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We look forward to hosting the athletes, coaches and fans from across the country and showing them the best of what our city has to offer."
2017 will also see the addition of a second major beach event to the USA Ultimate competition calendar. Beach Westerns will be held in Santa Monica, Calif., April 22-23. LAOUT, the Los Angeles Organization of Ultimate Teams, will serve as the local organizing committee for the event.
"As tournament director, I'm happy to announce that Beach Westerns is now a USAU championship event," said Eric Brach. "Players coming out to the Santa Monica sand this April will find great competition and an unparalleled oceanfront, plus many extra amenities – and a few surprises! With both mixed and single-gender divisions, Beach Westerns provides one of the few single-gender beach ultimate competition opportunities in the world. We're looking forward to offering high levels of spirited play for both local and worlds-level teams alike."
Beach Westerns will not serve as qualifier for the Beach Championships in 2017, but will provide a USA Ultimate beach playing opportunity on the west coast. An increase in west-coast playing opportunities is one part of outreach efforts envisioned by the beach working group as a means of increasing awareness of and interest in beach ultimate over the next two years, leading up to the first ANOC World Beach Games, ultimate’s first official Olympic event, which will be held in San Diego in 2019.
Both events will accept applications for teams in seven divisions: men’s, mixed, women’s, men’s masters, mixed masters, women’s masters and grand masters.
2017 beach competition guidelines, including information about how to apply for Beach Westerns and the Beach Championships, will be available in the next few weeks.
For more information on beach ultimate, including beach-specific rules, visit usaultimate.org/beach and wfdf.org/sports/beach-ultimate.
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